Designed for warm weather sailing, with an open plan that doesn’t impede the spectacular views, Silver Nova is a destination in itself.
Silver Nova is making her inaugural voyage down the Adriatic coast, through Croatia, Slovenia and Montenegro, departing from the port of Fusina outside Venice. It’s the height of summer, the temperature hovers around 32 degrees, the water is sparkling, and the beaches are crowded with nut-brown bodies lying on concrete terraces worshiping the sun.There are a lot of people down there. Most of Europe is on holiday, swamping the Adriatic beaches, from Italy to Greece.
There are several hundred passengers on this cruise , a high percentage of them American and European families, and each day I watch many of them head off with swimsuits and sunscreen on excursions to pretty villages such as Piran, Rovinj and Kotor, where the waterside fish restaurants do look tempting. Or they join the ship’s chefs on culinary forays to local wineries and farms, as part of Silversea’s immersive S.A.L.T. culinary program.
Besides, there are nine restaurants and seven bars to try, each with its own distinct personality and all of them, except the intimate, cosy Japanese-fusion Kaiseki and the supper club Silver Note, either have al fresco areas or large windows over the ocean.All suites have a private verandah, allowing me to enjoy the scenery in greater privacy, and the rooms are decorated in elegant neutrals, with touches of nautical navy, which don’t compete with the external visuals.
Despite good intentions, I never make it to any of the morning exercise classes in the swank fitness centre. All the ship’s information is loaded into an iPad, and I never quite work it out, perhaps intentionally when it comes to exercising. But I do make frequent visits to the wellness area behind the Roman-style spa, which has a glass-walled sauna, steam room, vitality pool and a sundeck that is rarely occupied, despite having some of the best views on the ship.